Fixing My Eyes On Jesus

What does it take to make it to the end? And to do so full of faith, without wavering, serving the Lord to the last breath?

In the book of Hebrews—a sermon transcript—the preacher presents Jesus in colourful imagery and directs the listener over and over again to live “by faith.” The eleventh chapter is the oft-described “hall of faith” that lists in some detail the names of many Old Testament saints who did just that, having first defined what exactly faith is. And in Hebrews 12:1-3, it comes to a stunning crescendo as the listeners (you and me) are encouraged to do as they’d done and live as they lived, with our eyes fixed on Jesus! It isn’t meant to be a feel-good mantra that we’d find on coffee mugs, wall plaques, and social media memes. It is a call to a way of life, so that no matter what we might face —both good and bad — we navigate it in a way that guarantees a good result. I have to believe we all want that. It’s something the world simply cannot offer.

Todd Dugard
Message: Fixing my eyes on Jesus
Harvest Alliston
Text: Hebrews 12:1-3
May 4, 2025

To live a life that is both God-pleasing and personally fulfilling, I must fix my
eyes on Jesus…

…as so many others have in the past (v. 1a)

…by removing all obstacles to faith (v. 1b)

…while persevering through all circumstances (v. 1c, 3)

endurance – ὑπομονή (hupomonē) – the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances—L&N 25.174;
lit. to remain under the trial or difficulty.

…and fully embracing him as (v. 2)

…my Saviour – “founder of our faith”

Looking to – ἀφοράω (aphoraō) – to look away from all else—Strongs 872; to keep thinking about, , without having one’s attention distracted; to fix one’s attention on—L&N 30.31

Psalm 101:3a

…my Lord – “perfecter of our faith”

…my Example – “endured the cross”

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

…my God – “seated at the right hand of the throne of God”

To live a life that is both God-pleasing and personally fulfilling, I must fix my eyes on Jesus, as so many others have in the past, by removing all obstacles to faith, while persevering through all circumstances, and fully embracing Jesus as my Saviour, my Lord, my Example, and my God.